Can fetuses feel pain?

Hmmm, no doubt that this will only raise questions and 'comments' on the abortion debate.

Personally, I think it is amazing. Anything that we can learn about the human body, including the body in-utero, is a cause for applause...hmmm that rhymed. LAME.

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With surgeries now being performed on babies still in-utero, the question of pain and anesthesia should certainly flow towards that scenario as well.

And if anethesia does become a requirement for an abortion, perhaps that will drive the cost up and add one more thing for the expectant mother to consider. That could have positive and negative effects.

I'd love to think that the womb is the most protected place ever. It is certainly the most amazing.

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While pg with my 2nd child I went into labor at 24 weeks. I couldn't walk due to some pelvic pain. ONce labor was stopped, I still couldn't walk. I had an MRI which revealed that I had 3 herniated disks in my low back. I again went into labor at 28 weeks, 32, weeks 34 weeks and delivered at 35 weeks. The doc's concluded that I was in so much pain that the fetus was actually reacting to that....in my book that is the only thing that could have been happening.....just my opinion

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I imagine that until a certain point, whether or not fetuses feel pain is related to nerve development. Right?

Also, this research is really interesting, but I find it problematic that this research question will become political fodder.

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Yes they can feel pain, why else would a very premature baby be so sensative to pain? Just because the baby has been born doesn't mean anything is different, they feel pain once they are born they feel pain before they are born. The womb is just protective that they are in a wonderful little painless world, due to the aminotic fluid.

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After reading this paper it seems that fetuses DO feel pain at some point once the neurological system has been developed sufficiently -

"As noted above, movement is often in response to tactile stimulation, or the sense of "touch". This sense is really a combination of three different sensory capabilities, pressure, temperature and pain. All three develop simultaneously so that by the 32nd week, "tactile responsivity can be demonstrated for all parts of the fetal body."175"

and....

In addition, the fetus will respond with "violent movement" to a needle puncture. Goodlin reports that during the performance of "hundreds of amniocenteses" normal, healthy near-term infants would invariably respond to "needle sticks" with movement and drastic fetal heart-rate changes....suggesting to him that the fetal responses to the needle were those of pain.182"


Frank Lake's Maternal-Fetal Distress Syndrome:
- An Analysis -


http://primal-page.com/mf3-4.htm

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I believe that they are capable of feeling pain - perhaps with an immature nervous system, it is different from what we consider pain, but still not a pleasant sensation. The article talks about babies between 22 and 26 weeks of gestation. My son was born at 25, and he cried when poked and prodded - but reacted completely differently to non-painful touch (My stroking his head, for example.)
Another baby there was born in the later half of it`s 22nd week - it too reacted, and even "cried" when poked and prodded. All the doctors and nurses there agreed that even the tiniest babies feel and react to painful stimuli. They did their best to keep the pain levels down for all of the babies. They also agreed that the babies reacted totally differently to non-painful touch. There is nothing different inside or outside of the womb for these babies - being born doesn`t magically turn on a "pain" switch.
I won`t comment on the abortion bit of this debate, but I find it extremely hard to believe that there is no pain felt until after the 26th week. In fact, I have as much proof as I need to say without a doubt that they do feel pain.

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Tamyu,

As someone who is vehemently pro-choice, I believe that a fetus is a fetus, not a baby. Once the fetus is outside in the world, it can be called a baby. The language really matters.

That said, if a fetus feels pain, I'm not sure I disagree with giving anesthesia to the fetus after 22 weeks for abortions.

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There is quite a fine line that people are drawing between research and political and emotional views.

I just want to make sure that no one is stepping on anyone's toes out here.

This can VERY easily be turned into an ugly debate because the topic can take so many different twists and turns.

I personally think that any research is good research as long as it is under the right circumstances and guidelines. (I used to work at N.I.H. so I have seen my fair share of research). Some agreeable, some on a very fine line. But I digress.

I think sticking to the facts is best.

I believe the issue here is also concern for the woman taking what is considered to be an unneccesary risk during an abortion...and also the hotbed issue of Congress being involved in the 'decision-making'.

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I'm sure a fetus can feel pleasure and pain. I worked in an pediatric neonatal intensive care unit and took care of severly early born( less than viable age of 28 weeks) and they do feel every thing we do to them as a young fetus. They can suck there thumbs and play with their privates in utero so I"m sure they feel pain. The nervous system is one of the first systems to form.God doesn't make any junk.It's been documented by numerous scientists that babies hold hands with themselves or twins or more in the same sac way before birth.Guess that's my opinion for this subject.

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Jane Doe,

Despite what I said, I am pro-choice. As in, I would never choose to abort, and I don`t like the idea of abortion, but I believe those who do not have a problem with it should have that choice available. It`s not like they`re going to come force me to have an abortion.

But I do have problems thinking of a baby as a fetus *just* because it is inside of me. No major changes happen as that baby emerges into the world. Changing your terminology doesn`t change anything physically. If it feels pain, it feels pain, no matter what you choose to call it. I don`t have a problem with calling it a fetus based on development though.

Anyway, as I said before, I didn`t really want to say anything about abortion because that is not the main point of this. It is about whether a baby can feel pain between 22 and 26 weeks. I have seen, with my own eyes, that they do - and some study saying they probably don`t isn`t going to change what I believe.

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I believe that, after the central nervous system is developped, fetuses can feel things such as touch and pain; however, I don't think that they interpret it as such. Their brains have not yet learned to associate their feelings with pain, so, though they may react to something as they would react to any outside stimuli, they do not have the same feelings as a baby or child would. I think that after the birth, however, and possibly right before, their brains develop enough to actually translate the external events into "real" feelings.

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Sarah, what do you mean by fetuses "can feel things such as touch and pain" but they "have not yet learned to associate their feelings with pain"? How can they feel pain and yet those feelings are not pain?

And what do you base your assesment that after birth or "possibly right before" they are developed enough to "translate" external stimuli into pain?

And are you contradicting the anecdotal evidence that Tamyu and Gena presented that premature babies could distinguish between "negative" (painful) touch and "positive" (like strokes on the head) touch when you say that fetuses "react to something as they would react to any outside stimuli"? Or is it different for these babies because they have been born and thus their brains have suddenly (perhaps in the birth canal?) developed enough to associate certain touches as painful?

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Let us imagine that babies were magically changed somehow during the birth process to feel pain.

Okay - that thinking sort of works with natural births. But what about c-sections? Wouldn`t a baby that hadn`t gone through the birth process not experience these changes?
Are you telling me that my son only reacted to touch and painful stimuli via reflex? Perhaps that is believable for the pain bit, but what about the pleasant touch?
How do you explain his reactions (accelerated heart rate, faster breathing, crying) when he so much as SAW the certain colors of the doctor`s clothing approaching? I can only imagine he associated it with pain, as he didn`t do it for any other color.

There are no big changes in moving from inside the womb to outside. In fact, babies develop more slowly once removed from the womb. Being born more quickly does not mean you develop more quickly also.

A note - my son was born via c-section. I was never in any stage of labor, and I was given no hormones that would trigger labor. Why would my son react to pain and touch 5 minutes after birth, but not 5 minutes before when he was still inside me? It doesn`t make medical sense at all, and that is NOT what the article says or even implies.

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It seems likely that fetuses at the point of viability can feel pain - after all, as has been pointed out many times, so can babies born early.

However, a fetus is a fetus even before it's at the point of viability. The question really should be "at what point during gestation is the fetus capable of feeling pain?"

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I just read part of this article. I have been looking at different books and articles that relate to this subject. I have to say that the fetus does feel pain. Their skin is sensitive to touch and when pricked with a sharp object, they respond, maybe not in the same way we do, but still a response just the same. Ever heard of the short movie "The Silent Scream". Watch that and tell me you still think there is no pain for a fetus. That is just painful for me to even think about watching it.

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Garsh, I wish the public schools would still insist that folks learn a smattering of Latin. "Fetus" means 'little one'. Who among us has never referred to their child with that term? It doesn't mean: inadequate blob of useless flesh. It means little one. Period. I'm also having to wonder why '1984' is no longer required reading material. It doesn't matter what you call something. Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll both had that pretty well pegged. "A rose by any other name..." and Alice's famous wish to use any word and have it mean ANY thing at any time? Whoo! Alice would be perfectly at home in this wacked out world. Baby, fetus, matured ovum... call it what you will, it is all the same thing. And to say otherwise is disingenuous, at best, and smacks of intellectual game-playing. Sort of like saying that I couldn't *really* feel pain until I hit my 30's; prior to that I hadn't enough life experience. Hogwash.

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I do not want to offend anyone, so please don't tkae this as such....

I'm alittle confused by the article. IF a woman is going to get an abortion, which kills the fetus, why does it matter if the fetus feels pain? They are killing it. Does it really matter if they feel it?

I'm not trying to sound cruel or anything, but it doesn't make sense to me. And I'm not trying to get into the whole abortion debate crap

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okay, go read the procedure for partial birth abortion and tell me a fetus doesn't feel pain! In school we were doing government where you chose a REAL bill and tried to get it passed by the class. One in was in speech and drama another was in government class. I used this bill in both classes and it was passed with NO QUESTIONS!

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